


Species of Vigor

by capncosmo



Category: Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger | Special Police Dekaranger
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-27
Updated: 2008-12-27
Packaged: 2017-10-18 02:15:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/183868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/capncosmo/pseuds/capncosmo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You could be doing so much more with talent like yours, you know."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Species of Vigor

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Estirose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estirose/gifts).



> For Estirose who requested Sen, vigor. I'm sorry, I kind of ended up dragging Hoji into it (^^;)

_"Doesn't it bother you, being assigned here?"_

 _"Hm?"_

 _"You could be doing so much more with talent like yours, you know."_

*****

Sen sees the way Hoji looks at Tetsu and wonders.

Tetsu's pretty strange, he thinks. Maybe it's because of his education. Probably it's because of his education. Sen likes Tetsu enough not to want to blame it on his trauma. Besides, Sen is pretty weird and he doesn't have any trauma. But that's his personality. It's probably not Tetsu's personality.

The reason he's strange is that he seems so willing to throw away everything he learned (or pretend to) because he admires Ban. Sen admires Ban, too, but usually admiring a person isn't enough. Enough to make you change the very way you think, especially when you were so very much more effective before. There aren't many people who can do that, outside of being brainwashed.

Hoji can't do that. Hoji can bend enough to accommodate other people, people like Ban and Umeko and Sen, but he can't do anything more than be flexible in how he acts. He can't change how he thinks, not because he _can't_ but because he doesn't want to be someone who can.

Sen read a book on self-hypnotism once. He thinks it wouldn't work on Hoji.

So that's why he wonders about Hoji, and Tetsu. Because it's so much easier to create reactions when catalysts are added. Any chemist could tell you that.

*****

Hoji was going to pass the exam.

Sen knew it, even though Hoji had only just applied. He could feel it, like the way he feels all his conclusions. He wishes he could convey his confidence to Hoji, but in the end, he knew Hoji had enough confidence to get by on his own. Which was good because Sen wasn't going to be around to support Hoji anymore when Hoji became a tokkyou. And neither was Jasmine or Umeko or Ban.

That's why Sen didn't like how Hoji looked at Tetsu. Because even though admiration couldn't make Hoji change his way of thinking, aiming to be an elite wasn't outside Hoji's way of thinking. It wasn't even in the garden. It wasn't even in the genkan.

Sen thinks Hoji is amazing, but he also knows Hoji can't live on confidence. Or rather, he can't live _well_ just by willing it to be so.

He wonders when the last time he sees Hoji will be.

*****

This isn't the way he wanted it, certainly. Even if they were all married to the job, even if it was just a job in the end. Sen thinks Hoji didn't deserve to lose two things he wanted so badly, even if he killed Hoji in the process of getting them. Everybody dies, Sen knows, some people more than twice.

It makes him feel guilty, though, when he thinks about how maybe *he* wasn't ready to lose Hoji, even if Hoji was. Was he really growing? Or was he stalled? He was awfully young to be stalled.

Sen does know something Hoji doesn't, though. It's not often he does, unless it has to do with a tough case, but that's not really Sen knowing so much as _knowing_ , and it's not fair to Hoji to compare the two since Hoji doesn't listen to what he _knows_ very often. Sen suspects he doesn't know he _knows_. What Sen knows, though, is that you don't have to do anything big like get a promotion or get married or get transferred to grow. That there is more growth in little things than big ones.

*****

 _"You could be doing so much more with talent like yours, you know."_

 _"I'll outgrow that."_

 _"What?"_

 _"I'll grow so much, there won't be any more to be done with my talent."_

 _"That wasn't-- Forget it."_


End file.
